Amid protest, 182 Manatee teachers lose jobs

The boy stared silently out at honking cars — a stark contrast to the lively kids shouting "Save Our Teachers" around him — and gripped a sign with a message and a sad face painted in red.

"Don't Punish Me."

An hour before Sam Waterman, 7, rallied against teacher layoffs with a large crowd of parents and students outside the School Board building Monday, the second-grader learned that his favorite teacher at Anna Maria Elementary School was one of 182 teachers cut in the name of righting district finances.

"I hadn't decided if I was going to tell him or not," his mother, Amberly, said. "But this rally was going on...it's still a little raw."

Roughly 250 school positions have been vacated as the district clamps down on district jobs to secure savings, officials announced Monday. Of these positions, 182 have been completely eliminated, while the rest may be filled with displaced staff protected by professional service contracts or educators hired back after enrollment numbers are calculated next August.

Superintendent Rick Mills said Monday that staff cuts are a necessary component of a $20.6 million savings plan that includes multiple property sales, outsourcing legal and audit services and cutting 80 district employees from administration in order to recover from years of unchecked spending in the district that led to a multimillion-dollar deficit.

With the cuts and an expected $22.4 million from the state for teacher salary raises and other allocations, the district should exceed $10 million in reserves by the end of next year, Mills said.

New Deputy Superintendent of Instruction Diana Greene said many first-year teachers, teachers with one-year contracts and teachers on annual contracts would not have their contracts renewed as principals made cuts based on allocations issued by the district.

District estimates project that the school system will lose 1,000 students next year, Greene said.

Teachers let go ranged from first-year teachers with stellar evaluations to educators with decades of experience who have been only in this district for a few years.

"There is no cause or reason other than we will not renew your contract," Manatee Education Association president Pat Barber said of the process last week. "Some of these people will be highly effective teachers."

Cuts are expected to continue on the district level in coming weeks. Eliminating 52 individuals in operations and 21 in instruction will save $3.7 million, Mills said.

"Do we have a lean staff already?" Mills said of district level cuts. "Absolutely. But I am confident that...I can get the right people in the right seats."

'Getting old'

Mills said extra revenue next year would go to curriculum, repaying a portion of funds taken from school internal accounts this year, and finding a way to boost employee pay, along with expected teacher salary increases.

But details are short on how this would play out. How $8.2 million allocated by the state for teacher raises in Manatee County would be distributed — and whether that pay would be tied to performance — is still undetermined. The union would have an important role in determining how those funds would be used through collective bargaining, Chief Financial Officer Michael Boyer said Monday.

For many of the more than 100 parents and students who gathered outside the district building on Monday afternoon, teachers should not have been targeted in the first place.

Brown stood holding a sign on the sidewalk with her pal Kay Petersen, another retired district educator who graduated from Palmetto High School.

"Having lived here, having gone to school here, it's just so unprofessional," Petersen said. "There are ways to make cuts that aren't on the backs of teachers."

Sam remained quiet as he held his sign and thought of Anna Maria Elementary gym teacher Eric Boso, who lets him play sports and kickball in gym class and is adored by other classmates.

This weekend, Boso showed up to a PTO event to flip burgers, just days after learning he would not have a job this year, said parents who came out in support of him and other Anna Maria Elementary teachers who will be let go.

Later, those parents, students and a few teachers would march to the entrance of the School Board building chanting, "I don't know, but I've been told, teacher cuts are getting old."

No adminstrators or board members walked through their line of colorful signs. Some had arrived early to avoid the crowd, while others had expressed support at an earlier time. So the crowd sang for each other, and for the teachers that could not be there. A few hours later, they had dispersed. All that was left was a sign, propped up against a pillar, for those that departed the school administration building to see.